


Now You See Me

by Listentothelittlebird



Series: Code Bat [32]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Batman and the Outsiders (Comics)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Duke finally appears to the Outsiders, Gen, Identity Reveal, Not Canon Compliant, The Harpers + Dinah like to mess with Ollie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 22:28:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,575
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28732701
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Listentothelittlebird/pseuds/Listentothelittlebird
Summary: Duke has been helping the Outsiders on and off, without showing his face. This time, there's no time for invisible help.(Featuring the two Harpers and Dinah snickering behind Ollie's back)
Relationships: Helena Bertinelli & Stephanie Brown, Jefferson Pierce & Duke Thomas, Roy Harper & Lian Harper & Oliver Queen & Dinah Lance
Series: Code Bat [32]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1964452
Comments: 40
Kudos: 364





	Now You See Me

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Grace Douglas](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Grace+Douglas).



> Grace Douglas thought of the first scene in a comment in [Batgirls, New and Old](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28644729)! The rest of the fic is Duke and the Outsiders :D

Roy was trying very hard not to laugh. 

Lian was already cackling, his adorable little shit, but she had played it off by saying she had looked at a meme on her phone. That had launched Ollie into a rant about phone usage at mealtimes, giving Roy enough time to recompose himself before Ollie rounded back to the original topic.

“What was I saying? Oh, yeah,” Ollie turned back to Roy seriously, “Nightwing is a great friend to have. A really good friend to keep, you know? And I know you hate me telling you what to do, but that Red Hood guy is… really something else. I don’t know if you should hang out with him, is all I’m saying.”

Lian managed to keep her amusement to herself, this time. Dinah, who had been silent up until that point, leaned forward and added, “You know who else is a good Titan to befriend? Red Robin. He’s been taking care of Lian and the others this whole time, right?”

When Ollie’s gaze turned to Lian as she nodded, Dinah met Roy’s eye and smirked. Roy coughed into his hand to disguise his surprised laugh.

“There’s some… interesting kids that you’re meeting with, aren’t there, Lian?” Ollie asked hesitantly. Lian smiled with a little too many teeth and a little too much glee in her eyes.

“Oh, yeah! There’s Maya, then there’s the mini-Superboy, then there’s Jai and Irey, and last but not least, there’s Canvas!” Lian piped up cheerfully, then pouted, “Although, Canvas seems to be going by a fake name, that’s why I’m calling him Canvas instead of David.”

Ollie narrowed his eyes, “I… see. Well, you best be careful around him, alright? I don’t like that he’s not being honest.”

Lian giggled and nodded, and waved off his questioning look while the smile remained on her face.

~

The Outsiders were on a recon mission. The goal was to get in, get the information they needed, and get out.

“Lark, are you with us?” Black Lightning whispered into his comms.

“Yup. Ready and in position,” Lark responded seriously. Black Lightning nodded and gave the signal to move in.

Geo-force and Huntress stuck close to Black Lightning as they sneaked in. Metamorpho was back at their base - while his powers would have been useful for sneaking around, this was an unethical science lab that they were infiltrating. They were too worried about his general safety to allow him to go with them.

They were doing well until they had to exit the place. They were too slow to stop a scientist from pressing a button within their lab coat, which immediately triggered loud sirens around them, bathing the room in a harsh red light. An announcement sounded overhead.

**Lab destruction in T-minus two minutes.**

“Shit,” Jeff mumbled, and began moving his team towards the exit. Other scientists were emerging and exiting themselves, and one of them must have been a particularly spiteful engineer - a few dozen murderous robots bled out from the doors along the corridors, slowing down their escape.

The robots were resilient pieces of scraps - any normal technology would have short-circuited just from Jeff's electricity. These robots seemed to have been built with metahumans like him in mind. They were forced to pick them off one by one, and that took way too much time for Jeff's comfort.

**Lab destruction in T-minus one minute.**

There were too many robots for one minute.

“This way!” Lark yelled, from somewhere close. Jeff turned towards the voice, and for once, saw a figure to connect to the yell. He was dressed in black, wielding a pair of hooked nunchucks, gesturing to a hidden corridor that he had opened behind him. Once the last person was in, he punched something into the side of the wall, and the hidden exit closed, leaving the robots behind. 

“How did you know this was here?” Jeff called, as they sprinted down the dimly-lit passage. “I saw one of them using it,” was the simple reply, “I’ll explain more once we get out of here.”

They reached what looked to be a dead-end, but Lark paused and breathed deeply. Jeff noted that Lark’s suit seemed to be glowing, just slightly, pulsing when he breathed. It was a brief pause before he stepped forward confidently and pulled down a hidden lever, the wall sliding away to reveal the outdoors.

There was a rumble in the distance, the lab exploding as they helped each other out of the passage.

“So, is that still a successful mission?” Lark questioned, earlier confidence gone and replaced with a restless shuffling. Geo-force squinted at him with a confused frown, before his face brightened as he jabbed a finger at Lark’s chest.

“You must be the Signal! I just knew that I recognised this costume from somewhere!”

Beside Jeff, Huntress snorted and folded her arms. “That didn’t take very long,” she commented dryly, and regarded Lark herself, “Then again, you didn’t even bother to change your uniform, besides the colouring.”

Jeff, who really only kept up with whatever the Daily Planet decided to publish, was two steps behind, and very much knew that as the conversation descended into something related to the Birds of Prey and Gotham.

“You should probably introduce yourself again to Black Lightning,” Huntress suggested with a small smirk, “Metamorpho is on the line, too. The oldies don’t use social media as much.”

Jeff frowned slightly, but Lark laughed and turned to Jeff with a grin tinged with nerves, a hand outstretched formally.

“Sorry for keeping my invisibility cloak on for the past several missions - I just wanted to see how long I’d be able to last. You can still call me Lark, but I go by Signal in Gotham. I’m… one of the Bats, I guess.”

One of them? 

~

Lark explained everything to them when they had returned to the base - after he had gawked at the base itself, at least. He started with introducing himself, describing and showing his powers, before explaining his connections to Batman. Besides being born and raised in Gotham, of course.

Jeff leaned back with a whistle, staring at Signal - or Duke, Duke Thomas, he had revealed - with an impressed tilt to his lips. “You were trained by the Bat himself, huh? I’m just glad you’re the only meta he’s been hiding,” Jeff mused.

Duke shrugged, “I didn’t know I was one until I started training. Even then, it’s hard to keep up with the rest of them - they’ve got bucketloads of experience on me.”

“You hold up fine, sheesh,” Huntress rolled her eyes, “Don’t downplay your own skills, kid. Anybody who operates in Gotham deserves a certain degree of respect, as it is.”

“You operate in Gotham, too,” Metamorpho pointed out. Huntress grinned sharply, and that was self-explanatory, really.

“I’m a bit late to the party, compared to my siblings,” Duke added, “All of them are already established by themselves. Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, and well, Canvas is getting there - he’s more known than me, at least.”

The list of vigilantes that Duke knew already - and knew _personally_ , Jeff reminded himself - was incredible. He himself knew three out of four names, and he respected each of them as formidable fighters, forces to be reckoned with. 

He refused to imagine what all of them working together would look like.

“Canvas? The young Titan?” Geo-force gaped, and grinned, “Given his build, I assume he was the youngest kid in that video, wearing red, green and yellow?”

“Yep,” Duke nodded, and Jeff really needed to go watch that video they kept referencing, “Robin. The current one, anyway - I think the official count is that he’s number five.”

“And we’re only on the third Batgirl?” Huntress scoffed playfully. 

“Dude, each Batgirl is a badass on their own,” Duke protested, “I mean, come _on_. Oracle, Black Bat, and Spoiler? Three of them is more than enough. Besides, current Batgirl was Robin four, if I’m not wrong.”

Jeff could see Huntress storing that information away for later. Whatever - it was not Jeff’s problem, that was for sure.

Wait.

"Oracle? Oracle was Batgirl?"

~

“Robin number four?”

Steph tilted her head back with a groan, “Oh, shut up. I’d much rather be remembered as Spoiler and Batgirl.”

“Hey, it’s not that big of a deal,” Huntress added nonchalantly, twirling a knife in her hand, “Who cares about past mistakes? Just kick anyone who insults you in the face.”

Steph rolled her eyes with a smile, “I could do that, but I think Cass would beat me to it.” 

Huntress snorted, “Oh, I bet. Seriously, though, even if Gotham didn’t count you as a real Robin, public opinion hardly means anything.”

She huffed, “Whatever. Just... don’t tell anyone I was Robin. That stint barely lasted for a few months.”

“What’s in it for me?” Huntress hummed, this time meeting Steph’s eye. The girl groaned a second time.

“You’re insufferable.”

“Pot, kettle.”

Steph pouted, then suddenly shot up from her seat with a wide grin. “Wait,” Steph cackled brightly, “I know. I’ll trade you Duke’s rookie photos for your silence.”

Huntress raised an eyebrow, “Rookie photos?”

“He ran into Condiment King once, on daytime patrol,” Steph grinned gleefully, “I have evidence. You’ll only see it if you promise not to tell others I was Robin.”

Huntress smirked. “Let’s see it, then,” Huntress agreed.

Duke seemed happy enough to tell others about all the Bats' connections, after all.

**Author's Note:**

> Heads up: this is the second to last reveal that I have planned! (I might leave the series to sizzle after that - I'm quite satisfied with all I've written thus far, and I want to try my hand at some other things!!)


End file.
